Hitler house to be bulldozed

Advert Travel Gazette

The Austrian birth house of Nazi leader Adolf Hitler is scheduled for demolition, interior minister Wolfgang Sobotka announced on Monday.

Deliberations in Austria about what to do with the building, located in Braunau am Inn in the state of Upper Austria, have been long-standing.

An expert team including jurists, historians, interior ministry staff, and local officials put together for the specific purpose of reaching a decision, have now concluded that the best course of action would be to bring the building down, which they passed on to Sobotka.

Cabinet is to pass a bill on Tuesday for the dispossession of the house from the current owner as well as for relevant financial compensation. This will pave the way for the demolition to begin, expected to occur in early 2017.

In its place, an entirely new building is to be constructed that will be used for either administrative or charitable purposes.
In response to questions over whether the house would not have served as a historical reminder of the era, Sobotka said other sites for this purpose already existed, such as the Mauthausen concentration camp memorial site, also in the state of Upper Austria.
Moreover, he additionally said he did not want the building to be a “pilgrimage and memorial site” for Neo-Nazis.